K-A's Week Nine: Bring It To The Table

    First going into Chris Milk's TED Talk, I wasn't fully convinced of his empathy claim. I've always found film to be a perfectly adequate way of encouraging empathy in viewers without the addition of VR. Oftentimes, the odd camera angles or movement would make me feel sick and disengage after a while. When I took a look at Clouds Over Sidra, the visceral reactions Milk was talking about finally clicked. I have seen a few other VR videos on YouTube before, but they were mostly for entertainment purposes and typically not over two minutes long. There is a shot around 7 minutes in that made me hit pause with just the sheer feeling of expansiveness. If the video was still-frame, I don't think I would have had the same reaction. I probably would have assumed the camera was shooting from the very edge of the camp. But this way I could move the camera in any direction and see the temporary housing out to the horizon. 

    For my bring it to the table, I decided to check out 1,000 Cut Journey. It definitely falls into the "odd" category of VR I mentioned earlier. The mix of 3D models and videos of real people is a bit jarring, and anytime you see Mike in a mirror, something seems a bit off. For me personally, it detracts from the experience. All that being said, I can still see how this would be a good way for people who are not familiar with the struggles of POCs to get a feel for what they go through.